Elmer W. Nelson

Elmer William Nelson, born on August 24 th ,
1929, to Elmer August and Lydia Emelia Nelson
in Litchfield, Minnesota. He was the youngest
of five children and grew up on the family farm.
His father had immigrated from Sweden and his
uncles soon followed. Family surrounded their
farm for miles, and this became a problem for
Elmer. Every girl that he showed any interest in,
his mother would say, “You can’t date her, she’s your cousin!”
He has shared many fond memories of growing
up on the farm, doing a man’s work, riding the
work horses Daisy and Maude, finding his way
to the barn by rope in a snowstorm, and many,
many more stories.
He was only 12 years old when his father
passed away. He was “farmed-out” to work and
live on his brother-in-law’s family farm. He was
expected to complete his daily chores, go to
school and help with the planting and
harvesting. In high school he took courses to
improve farm production and won the State
Championship for Seed Identification. The work
was hard, but he became invaluable and was
always treated like a man, despite his young
age.
After graduating from high school, he left the
farm and worked at several different jobs until
he ended up in Fort Dodge, Iowa. One night in
Fort Dodge he attended a dance where he met
the love of his life, Doris Mae Potter. He said
she was so beautiful, she looked like the movie
star, Hedy Lamarr. He liked to tell everyone
that she came to the dance with someone else,
but he took her home! They were married on
February 5 th , 1949, and the adventure began!
Soon after their second child was born, they
made a memorable journey to Oregon to work
at the gas station purchased by his in-laws.
Elmer worked many different jobs supporting
their growing family.
He is survived by his four children: Doug Nelson
(Virginia), Paula Rawlins (Jim), Steve Nelson
(Kim) and Janet Briles (Mike), ten
grandchildren, twenty-five great grandchildren
and four great, great grandchildren.
After the working at the gas station, he had
several more jobs; he worked at the plywood
mill, he sold insurance, he was a security guard
at the prison, until finally he worked as a
serviceman at Northwest Natural Gas Company
until his retirement in 1991.
Work was only a small part of life for Elmer. He
did everything with great joy and enthusiasm.
His life was filled with raising his family,
enjoying time with his kids and his
grandchildren. Family camping and hunting
trips were a yearly event. He enjoyed hunting,
fishing, travel, playing cards, going to the
casino, telling stories and singing! He loved to
sing! He joined the Salem Senate Aires
barbershop chorus in 1972 and continued to
sing barbershop music until his passing. He
needed no encouragement to break out in a
song wherever he was. He even joined the
choir at the retirement home and had a group
of “his girls” that would sit together and sing
whenever they got the chance. Elmer made
friends everywhere he went. His absence is,
and will be deeply felt by his friends and family.
Elmer was proceeded in death by his wife of 71
years in February of 2020. The loss was
devastating, and he missed her greatly.
“We had a good life” is something heard often
from both of them. A life filled with family and
friends, laughter and adventures, stories and
songs! It was a good life! You could even say it
was a great life! And all those who knew him
were lucky enough to be a part of it!